Citizenship, Immigration, Legal, and Housing Services

citizenship and immigration services

As a DOJ accredited organization, we assist immigrants at varying stages of the immigration process, providing wide array of application services: citizenship, adjustment of status, Consular processing, family petition, re-entry permit, and the smaller steps in between (passport, interpretation and “Green Card” renewal and replacement. The program provides a fee waiver application service for clients who cannot afford the USCIS application fee. We have adapted an online citizenship program, CitizenshipWorks, for those who can complete the citizenship application online with little or no help. To learn how to set up your account, click here for the video clip in Korean, and here for the video clip in Arabic.

housing program

The HANA Housing Program addresses barriers to affordable housing faced by Korean and other immigrants via one-on-one counseling, information, and referral services. We also host workshops in related areas. The goal of the program is to aid immigrants with limited English proficiency (LEP) in accessing affordable housing, understanding tenant-landlord rights & fair housing law, and finding resources for homeowners. The HANA Housing Program also helps low to moderate income families remain in their homes via financial planning or even post-purchase education. Our housing program also assists LEP seniors explore housing options through public housing lists and aid in completing their senior housing applications. We are a Housing and Urban Development certified housing counseling agency.

legal clinic

Our free legal clinic volunteer attorneys provide initial direction and advice in Spanish, Korean, and English. Immigrants have great difficulty in accessing or understanding the United States legal system. In addition to the significant monetary barrier for low income families, immigrants also face difficulties in securing legal services that are linguistically and culturally competent. They are often left with no option but self-representation, despite having no legal training or support. This situation too often results in individuals unable to communicate with court officers, and being unable to read and interpret court documents/notices. To address this base language barrier, they often bring friends or their children to provide translation. Nevertheless, because these translators are also unfamiliar with legal terminology, interpretations are often fraught with errors. While low-income immigrants have a great need for legal services (particularly in the areas of immigration, housing, credit and finance, domestic violence, and employment law), they are unable to meet these challenges.